From NewsOK we learn that Walmart and Gun World sold rifles and a glock, respectively, to a man who was “obviously” (per the police) mentally ill.

A few weeks later, the man, Gerald David Hume, shot his mother in the chest, dismembered her, and then got into an 11-hour standoff with the police.

WTF, Walmart? WTF, Gun World?

Oklahoma City Police Capt. Dexter Nelson said the fact that Hume, 52, was able to get the guns — despite being “visibly” mentally ill — is a scary reality in Oklahoma and a majority of the states in the nation.
Nelson said officers who’ve dealt with Hume described him as being “obviously” mentally ill.

“Obviously” mentally ill. But they sold him rifles and a handgun:

Gerald Hume was described by a relative as “a known schizophrenic” who hears voices and requires treatment, police Detective David Jacobson reported in an affidavit for a search warrant.

During the standoff, Gerald Hume admitted to a police negotiator that he had shot his mother in the chest, police Detective Ryan Porter reported in a court affidavit filed with the charge.

Police removed numerous guns, rifles and ammunition from the home he shared his mother.

Police also found a dead house cat and unspecified body parts that belonged to Janet Hume inside a freezer.

Oh and check out the man’s mugshot – who could have guessed that this guy had issues:

Gerald David Hume mugshot.

And remember, it was Walmart that sold Jared Lee Loughner the ammo he used to shoot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in the head at a townhall meeting with constituents.

It takes a village to fuel America’s mass-murder mentality. The culpability goes far beyond the shooter. It includes stores like Walmart and Gun World that are happy to profit from weapons, and organizations like the NRA that spend millions to avoid any kind of political attempt to make things better.

John AravosisFollow me on Twitter: @aravosis | @americablog | @americabloggay | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn. John Aravosis is the former editor of AMERICAblog, which he founded in 2004. He has a joint law degree (JD) and masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown (1989); and worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, and as a stringer for the Economist. Frequent TV pundit: O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline & Reliable Sources. Bio, article archive.

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Why don’t all of you left winged liberal dumbasses who want to live off of the government titty go to Chian or Russia or the Middle East and see what life is like when you don’t have your freedom anymore. It’s not the gun you dumbasses! It’s your “we are the world group hug” mentality that has caused most of the problems in this country. We need to go back to electrocuting or hanging criminals within 60 days of being found guilty and the crimes will stop.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Robin-Thomas/1797454054 Robin Thomas

The only plants that will be able to mature will be Monsanto-Brand.

stygianumbra

References? The authors of the Constitution made it rather clear that being disarmed was a pretext to being enslaved. You don’t have to be on a plantation to be a slave. Everything in this world is derived from force, if the people of the US are the government where do we derive the “force” necessary to obligate our elected officials to carry out our wishes? Where do we derive the “force” necessary to protect ourselves when paid protectors are nowhere to be found? Why was Britain voted most violent nation in Europe when they have a de facto gun ban?

Around two and a half million people die every year in the US. I don’t feel that those who die from intentional homicide by any firearm who number less than 10,000 warrant any more attention than the many other causes which fail to catalyze this type of public reaction. Especially when the weapons in question, “assault rifles” are used in a tiny fraction of those.

If you want to drill down to “assault rifles” of the type banned and demonized by the NY law, clubs and knives are far more deadly in the abstract despite even mass shootings. It is not common sense to restrict something that is a statistical drop in the bucket. Especially since the largest number of children ever killed in an attack on a school in the US were killed by a bomb.

It is the person who is responsible, and unfortunately human beings are the most expert killers in the world. They will always find a way, that’s kind of the reason why we have guns.

Jmg1andonly

No to mention have you seen Walmarts employees? They usually don’t look any better.

http://www.facebook.com/roger.leonard1 Roger L. Leonard

You anti-gun fanatics are throwing up (pun intended) inconsistent and non-tenable arguments. Just look at the non-sequitur comments. The problem is not with the guns. It is not. It with they WAY they are sold. So if you respond here, then make some sense or don’t say anything. (Such as the nonsense about the 2nd Amendment being written for southern slave owners. It was adopted on December 15, 1791, along with the rest of the Bill of Rights! Had NOTHING to do with slavery or the Civil War!) I bought a gun from a retailer after a background check was done. I had no problem with that and believe the same should be done for purchasing ammo. If not, why not? But banning guns, 1) Will never work; and 2) Is AGAINST the 2nd Amendment, no matter how you interpret it.

LanceThruster

Just as a side note, I have a problem with the “lookism” that thinks you can determine someone’s mental state by their appearance alone. Other than that, it is unfortunate that his mental demons resulted in so much violence.

Richard_thunderbay

The criminally insane have become by far the gun industry’s most valuable customers. After each massacre by a lunatic, sales of guns and ammunition skyrocket in anticipation of gun controls that are never destined to be implemented, thanks to NRA lobbying. We’ve seen that pattern repeat itself three times in just the last two years alone, after the Tucson, Aurora and Sandy Hook mass shootings.

It’s pretty diabolical when you think about it, in particular considering that a 2007 federal law intended by keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill was gutted and rendered almost completely ineffective thanks to NRA intervention. They obviously knew very well what they were doing.

samizdat

I live in a neighborhood in the City of St. Louis which had over twenty murders last year (the official boundaries are rather large, and it’s the most populous nabe). I don’t have a gun, and frankly, I don’t need one.

I think your problem is your fear. You have allowed it to control you and your thoughts. Oh, by the way, your government has been looking out for since before you were born. Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, sewage treatment, fresh water, fire protection, pre-natal guidance for your mother…need I go on?

floridaboy

If only I could afford to live in a better community, or better yet a gated community. Or at least a home with security system, something at least. The police get thier after the crime is committed, so that’s not much help. Any ideas on how to defend my family? Or should I just put all my faith in the goverment to look out for me? And if the goverment is going to take care of me can I quit my $15.00/hr job?

lynchie

Who would ever know if they do a check or not. We need to keep a registry of all serial numbers of guns. Who sold them and who bought them. We need to then fine them if no background check is done.

dkarma

While I agree that this guy should never have been able to buy guns in the first place because he’s mentally ill, I don’t think it’s wal-mart’s love of guns that makes them carry them in stores, but rather people wanting to buy guns that keep them going to wal mart asking for rifles, etc.

i dont think efforts to repeal the second amendment will scare gun fanatics. Rather, it will provoke them to greater fanaticism. But that might be exactly what is needconvince the electoratei of the need for repeal.

Naja pallida

There have been cases where Wal-Mart has refused to sell to customers, Including cases where they refused to sell firearms to certain people. if there was any question, the sales employee should have referred it directly their manager, and up the chain if necessary. The problem is, even the completely batshit insane can have moments of lucidity, and Wal-Mart employees are certainly not trained to recognize anything that might be a reason not to sell to someone. Their job is to ring people up, nothing more.

Green Eagle

I am as on your side on this issue as you could ever hope I could be, but I am very uncomfortable with a sales person in a store telling someone “you look crazy- I won’t sell stuff to you.” I suspect it wouldn’t be long before it turns out that, say, a large part of the black population in certain parts of the country are crazy, if you see what I mean. Any thoughts about this?

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

But Trolls are so much fun. Some of us have so few hobbies.

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

WAL*MART is the perfect definition of a predatory business model.

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

Very wise and a humanist wake up to those of us who are too often wiseguys. I also feel that way about The Dollar Store.

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

I’d put in a slingshot clause.

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

Maybe if Jerry Springer did something.

http://fighttherightwingnuts.blogspot.com/ mike31c

The obvious NRA solution is more guns and less background checks! Duh! :p

drdick52

But they were supposed to. It is quite obvious that the current laws and procedures have holes in them you could drive a freight train through. They need to be tightened, strictly enforced, and expanded to cover ALL gun sales.

goulo

Start? I hope most of us have been boycotting Walmart for years. Besides the gun issue, they simply destroy the culture and local business in communities.

Lots of gun waving lately. Like a lot of areas race is just below the surface and ready to erupt.

ComradeRutherford

That photo is an image of an Upstanding Patriotic Responsible Gun Owner! How dare you cast aspersions on such a hero!

Remember the NRA rules that the US media has to follow dictates that Responsible Gun Owners that actually shoot people are no longer allowed to be called Responsible Gun Owners.

And how dare anyone not sell firearms to obviously dangerous people? The 2nd Amendment says *nothing* about mental health, therefore mental health can NOT be used to determine who can buy firearms! Not selling firearms to violent criminals is a violation of their Constitutional Rights!

dula

In this economy, there are a lot of sane adults over the age of 35 living with their mothers.

waguy

Yikes! Yes, lynchie, you would not want to become a ‘lynchee’

waguy

You’re absolutely right, caphillprof. But once the ball starts rolling I think the controversy would draw in other outlets. If Faux and Rush try to discount the history, perhaps that would further marginalize them. One can hope…

Chingate

We need to start boycotting Walmart. NOW!!!

caphillprof

We keep talking of background checks for person purchasing guns, but we need to start also talking about background checks for persons selling guns, manufacturing guns, transporting guns and storing guns.

lynchie

You are so right generalizing is easy and it is not right to pick on people who in most cases don’t have a choice or the resources to shop anywhere else.

caphillprof

Gun nuts, nor rednecks, watch Frontline or American Experience. We need to confront them where they are.

Moderator3

HTML – tutorials are online

Naja pallida

You are exactly right. It’s easy to point and laugh at all the sad people, but that is really Wal-Mart’s business model. Move into an area, stagnate it so people can’t afford to shop elsewhere, and drive out as much competition as possible. Then they don’t pay their employees a living wage, so those people have no choice but to shop where they work. They thrive on poverty and economic starvation. And in such a drastic economic downturn, I don’t know any sensible person who isn’t trying to save a buck… and often that means Wal-Mart is the choice. Why would I shop at Target or Sears and pay two dollars more for the same thing I can get at Wal-Mart, when I need those two dollars to help pay rent? Or I can buy a week’s worth of food at Whole Foods for the same price as I can buy a month’s worth of food at Wal-Mart. When you need the money, the political and health considerations are secondary. We don’t all have those choices, and it’s Wal-Mart’s goal to limit the choices everywhere they open a store.

lynchie

You are right illegal firearms are the main culprit. You might be interested to watch CBC news on line and catch a different perspective on gun control and world news in general.

They actually report the news not the prepared for broadcast crap from companies, health insurance and hospitals we get here.

lynchie

Not in the county i live in. Have to be very discreet about being a liberal and liking the President. Sign on front lawn during election campaign. “Fire the Nxxxxx”

waguy

Fortunately rednecks are a minority in the nation as a whole. I suspect even in PA they’re a minority statewide. Still, it would take a big effort to change the national mindset on this issue. Maybe start with a Frontline or American Experience episode on the history of the 2nd Amendment?

Naja pallida

I’m in a similar boat, lived for many years in Canada. Never saw any problem with registration, and nobody ever came to the door asking to take away our family’s guns. We had a gun locker and an ammunition lock box, so they weren’t accessible to just anyone who wandered in, including the kids. And it is highly unlikely that any such ‘confiscation’ type measure would ever happen in the US either. Even the recent laws passed in New York grandfathered in guns already legally in people’s possession.

Most of Canada’s firearms related homicides, especially the gang-related ones, are also a direct result of illegal handguns coming in from the US. The statistics aren’t precise because, well, illegal guns aren’t always easy to trace and the US doesn’t offer any real cooperation nor meaningful way to trace them, but the guesstimates I have read put the figures very conservatively that at least half all firearms related homicides in Canada are committed with guns smuggled (is that even a usable term for a pretty much wide-open border?) in from the US. So if the US could get some of its guns under control, and out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them, it would improve Canada’s situation as well.

slappymagoo

I know this will get me kicked out of the kewl kids club…but while I’m all for pissing all over Walmart, I’m far less keen on pissing all over their customer base. It’s fun to think they’re all hicks and dopes, Idiocracy writ large. I don’t shop in one if I can help it. But for some people (who might not be looking long-term when it comes to the economic standards of their community), it’s a place they can go to save some money when you don’t have money to save. Depending on their community, it might be the only place nearby where they can get all the stuff they need, their groceries and their shopping and their auto parts and their kids’ glasses blah blah blah…the money they save shopping there might be the difference in gas money it takes to get to work or get the kids to school.

I understand the negative economic implications of shopping at Walmart, just as I understand the health implications of eating at McDonald’s. But when I was broke in my 20s, and my local McDonald’s had $.25 hamburgers on Mondays and $.35 cheeseburger Tuesdays, I’d buy the 5 max each day, freeze them and have lunches for the week. I’d eat nothing but Ramen noodles or spaghetti for days. Same crap a lot of you might have done. There wasn’t a WalMart around me at the time, but I probably would have been a shopper there, because my money was tight, I occasionally had to cut corners to make the rent, anything that kept me in the black (or less in the red), I’d try. And I’d hate to think for my money woes, it’d be assumed I was my-own-Grandpa trailer trash.

Pick your fights wisely, not every friend of your enemy is necessarily your enemy, and sometimes, you can even get them on your side.

lynchie

and should not qualify to have a gun.

lynchie

I am not so sure the majority would feel that way because here in Western Pa. the rednecks think fondly in the aisle of the local Walmart about slavery and how fine it was.

lynchie

Well they couldn’t have done a background check now could they

lynchie

You would know.

lynchie

Surprisingly there were 598 homicides in 2011 and most were stabbings (35% to 27% for firearms) 95 were considered gang related. The rate of firearm homicides is lowest in 50 years. I am a transplanted Canuck, I have a hunting rifle, though I haven’t used it in 15 years and I have a shot gun. I never felt registering my guns in Canada led to the government taking my firearms. The argument is specious. Its a cover for the lack of education and the daily dose of fear of the immigrant, fear of the black population, fear of the gov’t taking their guns. We get a daily ration of fear from the right cause everyone has to fear somebody or something.

The NRA calls for a national database of the mentally ill but doesn’t want anyone to look at it. They are so unbelievably full of it.

http://www.rebeccamorn.com/mind BeccaM

Well, y’know, people commit murders all the time, so what’s the point in having laws against it? And we don’t seem to have been able to stop terrorism with anti-terrorist laws, so let’s not bother with those either.

Every state in America requires people to prove they can drive safely before they’re issued a license to operate one. We have no such requirement for gun ownership. And I love how the responsible gun owners show up and brag about how they themselves took safety courses, use gun safes, and train regularly — but fail to see the irony in the purely voluntary nature of such measures.

If the 2nd Amendment is the excuse as to why we can’t require this, then it needs changing. Just like the Framers’ original intent in perpetuating slavery needed changing.

slappymagoo

And Jason London is not well-adjusted

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

Juicer?

lynchie

But John guns don’t kill people, people do. Yeah guys like this and the other deranged people who live in constant fear for their lives and the gov’t taking their guns and voices in their head and listening to FOX and Limbaugh and Hannity and O”Reilly and Bachmann and King. The list goes on and on. With respect to Walmart none of the people there have ever been trained to look at someone and determine if they are unhinged. That kind of training might have prevented this but that would get in the way of profits for the Walton family. Here is a perfect example of where a background check performed by the police would have hopefully caught his insanity. To get a job now most companies do a background check and a credit check. But we don’t want to do that upon selling them weapons whose only design is to kill some thing. The irony!

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

The Lion’s share.

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

good one mirror

pattyp

I see what you did there.

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

“What’s a waste of time is arguing with psychopaths who clearly have a sexual fetish for a piece of metal and violence.” Exactly, whenever I see one brandishing a bed pan I run like hell. ( just kidding)

nicho

Or a computer with a connection to the Internet. That would shut Free Republic down once and for all — not to mention remove a lot of the trolls from ABlog.

nicho

Guns also create an illusion of power for people who feel powerless. Other means — a rock, for example — don’t really give that same illusion. You don’t see Rambo running around with a bag of rocks.

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

Some of them live in my trailer camp.

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

That drives me crazy

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

good one!

waguy

Since the only reason for the Second Amendment was to placate southerners who wanted to keep their slave-control armed militias, it should have been repealed as part of the 13th Amendment. We need a huge education campaign to correct the misinformation that the 2nd was to prevent tyranny. If people realized it was to keep the slaves in check, the great majority would feel differently about it.

http://www.rebeccamorn.com/mind BeccaM

HTML strike tags.

ostracario

How did you get the line through your words?

Naja pallida

I’d be all for muzzles alone. :)

Guest

I could go for that — or for an “originalist” construction limiting it to muzzle loaders.

Naja pallida

And by that argument, why don’t we see a consistent increase in other forms of homicide? Why doesn’t Canada have a huge number of stabbings to make up for the lack of access to guns? Maybe because when you make causing death easy, people make that choice. When you make it more difficult, they seek other means of conflict resolution.

http://www.rebeccamorn.com/mind BeccaM

Off topic: Cardinal Mahoney and Bishop Curry of LA both removed of all church-related duties (even when semi-retired, Catholic clerics are often tasked with continuing administrative and advisory work) for their complicity in criminal conspiracy associated with protecting more than a hundred priests who engaged in the systematic rape of thousands of children over decades part in creating a major PR embarrassment for the RCC.

Neither one of those gentlemen looks “well-adjusted” Skippy. They do however look like regulars at Walmart.

Naja pallida

I’ve perused before, and I’m convinced many of those pics are from my local Wal-Mart.

ostracario

If you don’t mind my saying so, John gave you a polite and measured reply and you came back with “I hope to hell you aren’t implying that I am a psychopath…” Someone sounds like a “serious dick,” but it’s not Mr. Aravosis. (Psssst, it’ you.)

I’ve only been to a Walmart once. This guy looks like most of the people that I saw shopping there that day.

Dave of the Jungle

LOL

nicho

Waste of time, except that the number of gun-related murders and mass shooting is closely related to the strictness of gun control laws. Countries with strict laws — most of them — have vastly fewer shootings than the US. When Australia imposed strict gun controls in the ’90s, mass shooting stopped instantly. So, your argument is just nonsensical babble from the gun nuts.

Naja pallida

Hypothesis or experience? :)

Naja pallida

Definitely one of my personal pet peeves. Seriously, park your cart on one side of the aisle and then stand on the other side, blocking the ability of anyone else to pass, while you wrack your pea-brain trying to figure out whether you want the double or triple stuffed Oreos for fifteen minutes, completely oblivious to the twenty cart traffic jam you’ve just caused on either side of you. Super genius.

nicho

Congress?

Dave of the Jungle

It’s easier to dismember dead people.

Dave of the Jungle

Where else can you go to reliably observe people who stand in the aisles with no discernible awareness that other people exist?

pappyvet

Hatespeak,suvivalist ravings, and paranoid propaganda does not just lead to the hatred of progress minded people. It has created an aura of fear and anxiety that permeates the country and acts as a trigger mechanism. Couple that with the ease of acquiring firearms, and you have a perfect poisoned drama with few restraints.

Naja pallida

He had a brain tumor, but they still ruled him competent to be held for trial. The judge allowed him to enter a plea of no contest to involuntary manslaughter after the report about all the drugs in Gaye’s system and testimony from the father that he was scared of his son.

He was shot with the gun he had given his father as a gift though. Just another statistic in those which show you’re more likely to be shot by your own gun (or one owned by someone in your own home) than be shot by a random stranger.

doodahman

And I hope to hell you aren’t implying that I am a psychopath for raising that argument, or that others are for doing the same thing. That would make you a serious dick.

doodahman

Don’t be foolish. Cuisinarts are for body disposal, not killing.

doodahman

Really? You’re awake? Do tell.

doodahman

Yeah, so it’s just not true that insane people determined to kill others might find other means no matter what, and that banning guns only prevents non lunatics from protecting themselves. Uh huh, whatever you say.

http://AMERICAblog.com/ John Aravosis

It is interesting, however, that you guys always argue that they’d use something else, yet “they” always choose firearms. Clearly there’s some advantage in using a firearm to kill people or murderers wouldn’t keep using them. What’s a waste of time is arguing with psychopaths who clearly have a sexual fetish for a piece of metal and violence.

When terrorists used boxcutters on planes to murder 3000 people, we didn’t say, well they’ll use staples in magazines instead (and you can, you know). No, we banned boxcutters.

mirror

You keep telling yourself that, but everyday we keep waking up and finding out it isn’t true.

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

Touch of irony in your observation.

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

Hey dude, buy him a Cuisinart.

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

It’s a sign of the end times when they can exchange those squirrel slingshots at a local gun show for semi automatic guns. “Run Momma, run . I’ll give yer two minutes head start.”

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

So true. Scary, scary—-especially in the cookie isle where torn-open packages of HO HO’s litter the isle.

http://jdrhoades.blogspot.com/ J.D. Rhoades

Just what I was thinking.

doodahman

without the gun, he’d skip the shooting and go straight to the dismemberment. Another sterling example of why gun control is a waste of time.

Mary Kroner

Marvin Gaye was shot to death by his father, an Alzheimer’s patient, if memory serves.

jomicur

Another sterling example of the way guns make us all safer.

http://www.facebook.com/randyariddle Randy Riddle

And getting guns away from Alzheimer’s patients should get more attention.

drdick52

Several years ago I had a friend who was the patient advocate (basically their lawyer) for a state mental hospital in Oklahoma. One day one of the patients (who had been involuntarily committed) walked off the hospital grounds, bought a pistol, walked back onto the hospital grounds, went to my friend’s office, and shot and killed him. This was after background checks were mandatory.

Naja pallida

Maybe the rule should simply be that if you still live with your mother and are over the age of 35, you need a special dispensation to possess a firearm.

I’d settle for just interpreting it in terms of what the Founders intended. What part of “well-ordered militia” is hard to understand? And a bunch of Baggers living in single-wides in the hills of Montana isn’t well-ordered.

nicho

Have you been to a WalMart lately? Most of the customers look deranged. This guy wouldn’t stand out.

Guest

Maybe, as a counterweight to this nonsense, it’s time to mount an organized effort to repeal the Second Amendment. It won’t go anywhere — at least not for a long time. But it might just scare the shit out of the gun fanatics.